The Ten Words from God series pt 3, "Who has time to Rest?" by Rev Steven R Mitchell

The Ten Words from God pt3

“Who has time to Rest?”

By Rev Steven R Mitchell

Mountain View United Church, Aurora, CO

Based on Exodus 20:9-11 and Mark 2:23-27

 

        “Remember the Sabbath Day and keep it Holy” vs. 8

I would like to start out this morning’s reflection by asking a couple of questions.  First question is: Who knows what a “Blue Law” is?  Second question which is harder:  “Who admits having lived with “Blue Laws?”  Third question: “What did you and your families do on those days that were protected by these laws?”  Forth question: “How does community life differ today in comparison to those day’s with the ‘Blue Laws’?”  Blue laws were a part of social behavior and norms which carried over the earlier interpretations of what Scripture meant to “keep the Sabbath Day Holy.”   So my last question is this: “What does it mean to you to keep the Sabbath Holy?”

This morning’s focus is on the fourth word from God which says, “Remember to keep the Sabbath Day Holy.”  Does it mean not working on a particular day?  Does it mean doing specific activities while not doing other specific activities?  Are we allowed to ride our donkeys to worship, or are we expected to walk to worship?  Are we suppose to stay at home and twiddle our thumbs, or is it a day where we “catch up” on what we’ve neglected to do around the house during the other six days?  Is the idea of having a “Sabbath day” still necessary or is it something that we can discard?  These are the questions that this fourth commandment brings up. 

Shortly after moving to Seattle, WA, I developed some strong friendships with a group of Canadians who lived three hours north in Vancouver, B.C.  One of the things that I noticed was their work schedules.  It seemed to me that they had an enormous amount of time away from their jobs.  Not just a few, but everyone that I knew.  The reason for this being, they alternated working between a 5 day work week and a 4 day work week, which was mandated by their employment laws.  Time study research tells us that Americans work 350 more hours or nine work weeks more than the average European per year.  The same studies tell us that Americans suffer more from stress, cardiac arrest, hardening of the arteries, and cancer than Europeans do. Pg 46 of The Ten Commandments, Laws of the Heart by Joan Chittister 

We have built-in vacation requirements in America because of the recognition that people need to take some time away from their work, otherwise you end up with employees that perform less efficiently and develop stress related illnesses.  I remember when I was graduating from seminary, a conversation I had with my mother-in-law.  It was over the amount of time that a pastor should have away from his work.  I read to her a piece from a book that indicated that the minimal time frame for a pastor to take away from the parish work (vacation time) should be four weeks no matter how long the pastor has been employed.  Her comment was, “you see, that’s what’s wrong with the church today, creating all these new expectations, making it difficult for the pastor to do his/her job.”  I then read her the publication date of this book, 1906.

So, “what is Sabbath?”  Is it a day off?  Is it a day when businesses are supposed to be closed?  Is that even realistic these days?  What are we suppose to do on that Sabbath day?  For those of us who are concerned, “how do we make ‘Sabbath’ holy”; which is probably the greater question of any these. 

What was the purpose in Exodus for God providing the Ten Commandments and then later having it restated in the book of Deuteronomy?  As I pointed last year as we took a deeper look into the Beatitudes, these commandments are not “stand alone” statements, rather each of these commandments build upon those stated previously.  The First was to have no other gods before God, this addressing those systems who present themselves as gods.  The second was to have no engraved images, this prevents the worshipping of an object instead of worshiping the source – the bible could be seen as an engraved image of God.  The third was not to miss use the name of God, which goes beyond having a potty mouth.  These first three speak about the temptations of trying to manipulate God for our own purposes.  Today’s forth commandment again provides another hazard that can separate us from our roots, from God and from community – it is not taking time out to “remember.”  Rituals help us remember, such as the ritual we partook a few weeks ago on All Saints Sunday, by lighting a candle in honor of a loved one who has died.  It is in this remembering that helps keep us connected to our past and reminds us in small ways of who we are.

These commandments help us to address the issue of distributive justice.  While under the hand of Pharaoh, the Israelites were slaves to the god of scarcity, the god who restricts rather than provides, a god who begat injustice instead of providing justice.  The reason why we are taking a longer look at these Ten Commandments is because, each generation has to deal with a system that tries to prohibit the God of justice. 

So how does the Fourth Commandment provide for distributive justice?  Hear who is affected by this commandment: On (the day of Sabbath) you shall not do any work, neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your male or female servant, nor your animals, nor any foreigner residing in your towns.  Not only are you not supposed to work, but neither can your children, or your servants (possibly employees in modern understanding), not even your animals, nor those who are foreigners.  Nobody is supposed to work!  What does this do?  It makes on that one day, everybody equal.  There are no bosses to satisfy.  It brings into balance the whole of the animal kingdom.  I suppose in one respect, we could see this day as being able to allow humanity and the world to re-enter into the Garden of Eden for that 24hr period.  What does that mean?  It means being in relationship with creation prior to what we call the “fall.”

Sister Joan Chittister provides three reasons for the Sabbath.  Firstly, it provides for the creation of equality for that one day – the rich and the slave are equal since there is no work happening.  Secondly, it gives time to reflect on the meaning of our lives – it allows time to think about those bigger questions in life.  Thirdly, it gives us time to reflect on the goodness of our work as God did on creation when God rested on the Seventh Day – in other words it allows us to enjoy what we have worked for. 

When we work so hard to get the things that we think will give us pleasure, but we continue to work to keep it or get more of it, then we have missed the opportunity to enjoy it.  We forget to “remember” most frequently those that we love the most.  We work hard to provide a good life for them, but do we take the time just being with them and enjoying them, or are we guilty of what Kat Stevens so brutally say’s in his song “The Cats in the Craddle”, depicting how the father was always too busy to spend time with his son, in his old age wishing to spend time with his son who is now to busy for his dad, “One day it occurred to me, my son has turned out just like me.”

In the simplest of forms, Sabbath is about taking time out to remember, to reflect, to enjoy the life that we work so hard to build.  It is a time to remember what is most important in life – relationships!  Relationship with ourselves, relationship with our family and larger community, and our relationship with God, the one who makes all things possible. 

It isn’t about having to go to church for an hour or two.  In fact, church too often is seen like the restrictions of the earlier Israelites, of having to do this in order to achieve a requirement.  Jesus said, “The Sabbath was made for humanity, not humanity for the Sabbath.”  What going to church should be is an opportunity to “worship”, for worship provide a time for us to come and “remember” who we are, and reflect on our relationships with God, creation, and with one another.  Worship should not be a “blue law” but rather something that we look forward to doing, for it is an act of remembering who we truly are.  We are a people of freedom, freed by the hand of God.  Amen.